A Grim Vision of the Future of the Broadway World

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/4/05 at 11:05pm

Follow the link and you'll find a little story (okay, not little, but am I ever terse?) about how casting Britney Spears in Sweet Charity would have led to the downfall of not only culture and civilization, but eventually the entire human race.

A little apocalyptic Twilight Zone episode I like to call
Britney on Broadway

[StageWhore]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 3:25am

Haha, I just found this. I especially like the daring atonal music ALW wrote.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 6:19am

If Broadway survived Hasselhoff, Bring on Britany

[wickedfreak]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 10:00am

That was genius!!!!

[jasobres]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 11:12am

Now that's a story ya gotta love to hate and yet hate to love but still love, if you get my drift, nudge nudge, wink wink, grin grin, snap snap, say no more. A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh?

[Guillermo Ugarte]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 11:20am

There are some that think the downfall of Broadway began in the last century.

I believe we did a reasonably good job in keeping the spark alive until the exact date and time the first producer awoke with the idea of casting a role without thought of talent, capability, training or stamina.

This has always been a business and, as such, producers expected to make money in spite of the pesky artists they had to employ.

We have entered an age where producers, audiences and the pretty faces and big names they love are less concerned with art and more concerned with buzz, glitz, and glamour. Mad cash cow disease is running rampant.

On a personal note, I am looking forward to seeing Paris Hilton as Blanche Du'Bois.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 11:25am

I think you have to look back through history... really far back. Stunt casting has been a part of theatre, Broadway, vaudeville and movies going back to the very beginning.

I can use a "Ragtime" reference, since most of you will know it... Evelyn Nesbitt, after her trial was finished, went into show business. She eventually fizzled out, along with her Crime of the Century, but for a brief while, she was the Girl on the Swing, and a big attraction. She didn't bring Broadway or Vaudeville to an untimely death at the turn of the 20th century.

This is really nothing new. It doesn't make it GOOD or pleasant to think about, but it isn't the first sign of the apocalypse, either.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 11:30am

I found that amusing.

But my views are different. I think, as long as there are young people, there's always going to be a revolution. Back in the 60s or whenever we all thought theatre was dead... it came along and made this freak 'resurgence' (and if it wasn't for those people, including Lloyd Webber, Broadway may WELL be dead now. We'd certainly be dancing on its grave.. with numerous amateur / revivals etc.)

I've never agreed with the opinion (save for a few exceptions) that Broadway is dead. It's like saying God is dead (we have no proof). There are young people out there. Broadway, in its heyday, echoed the music of the streets. What is the msic of the streets now? And I mean the dramatic, effective stuff. All music in a theatre show has to be dramatic. When I hear The Darkness or System of a Down, that's how I imagine the present state of theatre: or what attempts to sound commercial, but ends totally alien (something you'd only get from a show...).

Broadway is not dead, and neither is the musical. I know a lot of passionate youngsters, and you probably do too, but I will always say.. even into my old-age.. we'll still be thriving some years down the track. Just as long as stars are made ON Bway, in NEW shows (at least good shows from the "powers that be": no matter how hard it's gonna be for the 'newies' to prove themselves) that's all that counts.

Broadway, theatre, whatever, will never die. It is constantly existing

There are new ideas being made every minute

Updated On: 12/6/05 at 11:30 AM

[grizzabella]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 12:52pm

I agree with your assessment, rockfenris2005. I, too, while I sometimes lament some of the casting choices out there, recognize that it is show business, nor show art. Of course, in a perfect universe, it would be (and happily can be) a combination of both. Regardless, as long as there are young people in those theatre seats, and they are bringing their own vision to the boards, and stars are rising, Broadway is alive and kicking.
As much as it doesn't appeal to me personally, if pop stars and the Disney Corp. expose kids to the idea and experience of live theatre, there is a chance they'll branch out into more mature and rewarding stuff. And the show goes on.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 12/6/05 at 1:14pm

Hoorah! StageWhore is my new favorite person ever. And you can quote me on that.

Well I hope you guys know I don't think casting Britney in a Broadway show would bring about the end of the world, but she's a pretty big star... you never know :P

PS RockFenris, I think Broadway wasn't so much dying in the 60s as it was in the late 80s and 90s when there really just wasn't much going on (besides RENT, the Disney musicals, etc...). I mean obviously there were good musicals but it wasn't a golden age for the musical or anything. But the off broadway musical was starting to flourish around then, and works became more daring, and then The Producers came along, and all those new composers reared their heads as an answer to Sondheim keeping it real all those years. I think the musical is doing well now because the creative moons are better aligned. But The Producers was the answer to the onslaught of revivals. So it's funny how these things work out if you think about it.

Hal Prince wrote something about this, how we need more daring creative producers to come along. And maybe a director with a really unique vision. He doesn't have to be British.